it's just a tragedy. >> one about a mother who dared dream that her sweet gemini twins would surpass her, who instead became their victim. that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you again friday at 10:00, 9:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good p plane down, on fire. now at 11:00, a fiery crash rattles a suburban community, a plane hits a utility pole and bursts into flames. the democrats fan out over the boroughs while the clintons

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>> we're going to start with the plane crash on long island. it is the third one in suffolk county in as many months. >> it is amazing that the two men on board survived this and nobody on the ground was hurt. the piper had just taken off from the bay port aerodrome when it went down on the street. >> reporter: the wreckage is still there on that residential street behind my. that's third avenue. you can see the firefighters are still on scene tonight, combing over what is left over. and yes, miraculous is exactly what the police commissioner called it tonight. part of the reason the men were rescued so quickly, local emts live in the neighborhood and rushed out of their homes to pull those men from the plane. the mangled plane lies flipped upside down, an ash and mess inside this residential block tonight. it is the crash sceneareft behind after investigators say

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fell from the sky this evening. >> i was looking out the win die, he stalled and he came down. the pole twisted around, landed and went on fire and stuff. >> reporter: officials say the plane was headed to orange county with two men on board. the pilot, 35-year-old scott clifford and his passenger, 66-year-old michael rome. they had engine trouble and tried to turn around but never made it. first responders were radioed to the scene on third avenue. >> in bayport, big plane down, on fire. the plane has hit a power line. >> reporter: the plane clipped a tree and then a power line before colliding with the concrete on this otherwise quiet block. >> this is nothing short of a miracle. both that the airplane did not hit any houses or any other individuals. we're talking about a sunday evening at 7:00. cl rly there could be people out and about. >> reporter: witnesses say the plane was engulfed in flames.

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hose and doused them before firefighters pulled the men and medevaced them to the hospital. >> the pilot has two broken legs and has also experienced head injury and is in serious condition at stony brook university medical hospital. >> reporter: again, so many calling it a miracle tonight that the plane did not injure anyone on the ground. that there wasn't more wreckage here in the neighborhood. the faa is on scene. the ntsb will be leading the investigation, and just one more note tonight. at one point, at least 250 customers were without power. don't forget, the plane hit a utility pole. many are back tonight, but some won't have power until this scene is clear. reporting live from bayport, ida siegal, news 4 new york. it's amazing they survived it. this is the third recent small

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in february, a plane crashed in setauket harbor, one of the passengers, a college student from queens was killed. and just this last month, this plane landed at an industrial park after the pilot deployed the plane's parachute. a father and daughter returning from a college visit did survive. in westchester county, an afternoon fire destroyed a home and damaged another. the fire was fueled by winds and quickly spread to the neighboring homes. about an hour after the firefighters arrived, the house where it started was gutted and collapsed. firefighters were able to save the others. >> yeah, i didn't have, i was just in my bare feet and shorts. i was trying to go back inside to get my stuff, but my door was locked so -- >> reporter: you just ran. >> yeah. they told me i had to go across the street.

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we did a very quick search on arrival, but it drove us back, it was such a heavy volume fire on arrival. >> reporter: a store-front church was located on the ground floor of the house that collapsed. a couple firefighters were treated for minor injuries. now to the presidential race, and there is no rest for the weary this sunday, nine days and counting until the new york primary, and the democrats are busy, the clintons courting the black vote while bernie sanders went back to his native brooklyn. michael george is here with more. >> bernie sanders is coming off a recent string of wins, but now all eyes are on new york. he has an uphill battle as he trails hillary clinton in the polls. both spent the day trying to win over new yorkers and turning up the heat on attacks on each other. duelling rallies. bernie and hillary ramping up the fight for the delegates. >> we are taking on all of the establishment.

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thank you! >> she and her husband bill made appearances at several churches in queens. >> we're going to bui on the promise that president obama has set for america. >> she was a great secretary of state. >> i feel that the clintons have a place here in new york. she's fought for new york, new york values. >> the former secretary of state also questioned bernie sanders loyalty to the president. >> we have someone to rejects the idea that president obama has made progress, doesn't give him the credit that i think he deserves. >> sanders, meanwhile, stopped for a hot dog at nathan's on coney island before addressing a crowd of supporters right on the boardwalk. >> i hope that on april 19th, we will have the largest voter turnout. >> i loved it. he feels passionate about everything that i feelp

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>> the vermont senator also took to the tv waves. >> she may have the experience, but in terms of of her judgment, something is clearly lacking. >> now hillary clinton held an event in maryland tonight, but she will be right back here in new york tomorrow and holes multiple events in long island. meanwhile, bernie sanders is taking his campaign to upstate new york. thank you. and on the other side of the aisle, gop front runner donald outrump rallied in rochester today where he c'lled the nomination process corrupt. he spoke to thousands inside a hangar there at jet smart aviation services at the rochester airport. he touched on everything from rochester's economy to the electoral system claiming that he and bernie sanders are being hurt by the nomination process. he says it is unfair that a candidate could win the most votes but be denied the nomination. >> i watch bernie, he keeps winning, winning. then i see he's got no chance.

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why doesn't he have a chance? because the system is corrupt, and it's worse on the republican side. >> while trump has won more states, it's possible he won't secure enough delegates needed to win the nomination. rival ted cruz is gaining some ground. he heads to california tomorrow in hopes of securing more delegates. meanwhile john kasich heads upstate tomorrow. stick with nbc news for everything news 4 that you need to know leading up to the big new york primary. our coverage continues on air, online and on our news 4 app. mayor de blasio is speaking out about a corruption investigation that has now extended to his own campaign funds. he says the feds have not contacted him, and he has no knowledge of an investigation. >> i have no evidence of that fact. we have gotten no inquiry from any office. no one associated with me has gotten any inquiry. so i just can't comment on something that i have no specifics on.

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with four senior nypd officers, they face disciplinary action for allegedly taking money and gifts from two brooklyn business men in exchange for preferential treatment. those two men gave money to de blasio's campaign. but he says he's returned that money. the shooting death of former new orleans saints star will smith has shocked the community. now we're larging more about the gunman charged with second degree murder. will smith is being mourned in the big easy tonight, one of the most-loved players the franchise ever knew, gunned down senselessly. >> while this is an isolated incident, it is certainly tragic at every level and on all sides. >> reporter: just hours before his death, he tweeted he was having a blast, having a good

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but around 11:30, a hummer rear ended smith's mercedes, and the drivers got into a heated argument, the driver of the hummer, cardale hayes opened fire. smith was shot multiple times and pre nounsed dead at the scene. >> we saw the man advance with the gun in hand and heard the shots, probably six to eight shots. >> his wife shot in the leg and rushed to the hospital. cardale hayes is charged with murder. he once received a sentence over the shooting death of his father. in a bizarre twist, earlier in the evening, will smith had dinner with a former officer named in that suit. right now police don't know if there is a connection here or if this is just a wild coincidence. >> at this time, we do not have any information to suggest that they knew one another or that this was anything other than an accident that turned into a dispute, disturbance that turned violent.

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in 2004. he spent all nine of his nfl seasons with them and helped the saints win the super bowl in 2010. >> it is so rare these days in the nfl to have a player spend an entire career with one team, and i think that's why this really resonates with the city and the people of new orleans, because they belonged to will, and will belonged to them. >> just last month, smith was unanimously elected o the saints hall of fame in his first year of eligibility. as for the suspect, he was arraigned today and is being held on $1 million bond. news 4 at 11:00 is just getting started. new details about the brussels attacks. they say that was the terrorists' back up plan. where they initially wanted to strike, coming up in the next half hour. then, should transgender students be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms of their choice? it's up for a vote in new jersey. plus, how would you like to pay less to take the subway?

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it happen, but there is a catch. we'll explain. i'm meteorologist erica grow. milder air arrives tomorrow, but so does the chance of showers. we'll time-out their arrival and look at the warmer temperatures

this is everything i have, my family. i got to see my dad die on national tv. they don't know what they took from us. people are dying. we need a president that's going to talk about it. i believe bernie sanders is a protestor. he's not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. he's not scared. that's why i'm for bernie. i'm bernie sanders

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they say the 23-year-old fatally shot stabbed mario ortiz. he is also accused of ordering a woman to get in a car with him and driving away with her. she was later found unharmed. he's being held on a $1 million bond. police have officially identified the body of a man. he was found at the long pound ironworks. he went missing one month ago while swimming with friends. his family is planning a sec nd funeral for him tuesday once the body is returned to the family. a pair of lawmakers from island is launching a bipartisan push to fight the growing heroin problem in suffolk county. andrew rea called for new treatment facilities at pilgrim

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this is in response to a new report that says suffolk was the number one county in the state for heroin overdoses from '09 to 2013. >> this is an emergency. we need to open up those beds as quickly as possible. >> now raia and spencer say they hope governor cuomo will act on their proposal as soon as possible. cuomo was not immediately available for comment. a new jersey school board plans to vote on a policy to protect the rights of transgender g students. it would allow all students to use restrooms and locker rooms based on the gender with which they identify. a national conservative group is threatening legal action. dozens of other new jersey school districts already have similar policies in place. tomorrow in newark, officials are set to finish testing for elevated levels of lead at the city's schools.

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month had some water samples with elevated lead levels. four had elevated levels in their drinking water. they are waiting for tests of dozens of other bill uilding ina district. tonight the community service society and the riders alliance launched a campaign outside of city hall. it comes on the heels of a new report that finds one in four low-income new yorkers cannot afford metro cards. according to the report, an estimated 800,000 riders would be eligible for a half-price fare. advocates say those who would opt to participate in the program would save up to $700 per year. millions of miles away from planet earth, the kepler spacecraft is in kroigs. nasa's trying to make contact with it after he lifted to emergency mode. the last contact was on april 4th.

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and despite several break downs it's continued on, detecting nearly 5,000 planets outside our solar system since launching back in '09. it will be interesting to see what happens there. >> that thing's been making great discoveries, absolutely. talking about the skies and the weather, we could use good news. >> the skies are clouding up, but we have milder temperatures to come with the cloud cover. so a little bit of april weather finally starting to enter the picture. speaking of pictures, we're taking a live look outside of the last few ice skaters for the rink. that is closing today. this is your last opportunity. right now it is cloudy and 46 degrees. temperatures pretty much holding steady overnight tonight. we'll see the numbers rising to where they should be for this time of year by the afternoon. with that seasonably mild air tomorrow we'll see showers arriving. i'll show you why in a moment. more rain arrives on tuesday. that is the wetter of the two

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41 in farmingville. and it's 43 in newburgh. temperatures are consistent in the low 40s right now. on storm tracker, you can see the showers approaching. most of the rain will hold off until tuesday, but we will see a few showers pop through, especially before noon, you could see a shower west of town. then the activity pushes to the north and out of the tri state by monday afternoon. don't be surprised if you get a late-day shower as this system pushes closer to us. a high of 58 degrees on monday. then as that front really swings through, the bulk of the rain arrives on tuesday. behind that, more sunshine enters the picture by the middle of the workweek. a cooler breeze, but it's not going to be too bad. late in the workweek, though, we're keeping an eye on the possibility for a system to fit off the coast, spinning showers back in to the tri state.

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head to the end of the workweek. overnight weel a we'll drop down to 406789 tomorrow we'll reach highs in the upper 50s to around 60 degrees, finally seasonal weather with a shower likely late in the day. in the sev, -day forecast, more rain arrives on tuesday, a high of 55 degrees. could see thunderstorms as the thunderstorm chance will roll through. we'll start to replace that with cooler and drier air for wednesday, with a high of 55 degrees and a partly cloudy sky. nice day on thursday, but friday, unfortunately, unfortunately, that's when we're targeting another quick shower or two. but next weekend looks great with highs in the 60s and sunshine returning. we can finally have nice weekend in april to enjoy. >> love that. >> who'd have thought. >> we'll take it. >> absolutely. thanks. a pup tumbles down a 300-foot cliff and survives. >> wow.

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on a trail ride in utah thursday. that 1-year-old dog went running after something and it went right over the cliff. he was eventually rescued. now he's suffering from a number of problems, including a head injury, bumps and bruises. his family delighted to see him walk out of that pet hospital on his own four paws. >> glad he's all right, wow. say hello to smoky junior. he's cute too. he escaped harm due to first responders in florida. they found him while trying to fight a wildfire. he suffered burns on his paws and face. his rescuers named him smokey jr. now they're hoping mama bear will come by and bring junior back into the wild. >> news 4, coming up, a little boy with a big voice. how i's bringing attention to a

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the year. four the fourth straight year, downtown hartford held a victory parade for the women huskies. they capped off an undefeated incredible. it is the 11th national championship for the head coach and the uconn program. they are good. >> con kbrat we heard you talking about the masters. >> it was not something any of us suspected. jordan spieth is the new face of golf, and halfway through it appeared to be a coronation for the 22-year-old texan. but the wheels came off in spectacular fashion. following two straight bogies, spieth went up in flames in the par 3 12 as his tee shot comes up short and rolls into the water.

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unthinkable, chunking his next shot and into the drink again. a 5-shot lied -shot lead, turned into a 4-stroke deficit. and the englishman, willett capture his first career major. he joined nick faldo as the only englishman to win the masters. meanwhile, spieth thinks about his epic collapse at the masters.

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after getting shut out last night at city field, the mets look to bounce back against the phillies. matt harvey getting the start. he was up and down for the second straight start, and with philly leading 1-0 in the sixth. herrera crushes one. the mets finally woke up in the bottom of the frame. yoenis cespedes. that's the first homer of the year for cespedes. but the phillies tacked on a couple runs, and the mets offense never threatened again. the amazin's had only four hits

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phillies. 5-2 the final. >> you lose games and win, you know, the other team outplays you for two straight days, this is going to be the outcome. these last couple days, they pitch better than us, hit better than us. they did everything better than us, and it shows in the win/loss column. >> the captain being brutally honest. degrom will miss the next start. on the islanders, they host final al eye finale. flying start. matt martin is set up for the gorgeous tally. 2-0. but the flyers came back with